STUDY NOTES
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Verse 1

The 40 year rest was over. Israel renewed their life in sin. The light dimmed and darkness was back in the lives of the Israelites.

I think we need to address something that is repeated numerous times thought out Judges: “The Lord sold them,” or “the Lord gave them,” or “the Lord delivered them..” This is all legalities. It is a jurisdiction issue.

Jurisdiction (n) the authority given by law to a court to try cases and rule on legal matters within particular geographic area

When you step on to the enemies territory, you are now in his legal authoritative trading ground. When the Israelites “did what was evil,” they made a trade with the enemy. They stepped over on to his floors and left the Lord behind. They chose that. Not God. For example, in Matthew, when we read that Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he offers Jesus a trade. Satan says, “if you will bow down and worship me, I will give all this to you.” Jesus rebuked Satan and said the word of the Lord back to him. This is our proper response when placed on Satan’s trading floor. The Israelites failed. They bowed down, so what happens to them happens because of that trade. Satan can now go before the courts of Heaven and appeal/argue for what is his. The Israelites (you or me) make this decision. God just upholds the laws of Heaven. God is not bad, sin is. And we must refrain from it lest we become tangled in it’s tentacles.

“The Lord gave them..” = to give one over to the power or authority of another
Satan went before the courts and won his appeal because the Israelites bowed to his authority.

It also says “for 7 years,” could this have been shorter? Yes, they don’t cry out unto the Lord until verse 6!! Either due to pride, stubbornness, or ignorance they wait 7 years to cry out and repent.

Satan fell because of pride. Pride will not make it into Heaven. If all that stands between you and your eternity is to swallow your pride, there’s a river flowing from the throne room of Heaven that will help wash it down.

Verse 2 – 6

Instead of turning to God, the Israelites ran and hid. They were humbled down to mere cave-dwellers. The Midianites were cruel people who were set on destroying Israel. The Israelites would till the ground all for the harvest to be stolen by force, leaving them no food. Seven long years of poverty, oppression, and fruitless labor.

The bounty of sin is always death and Israel’s sin gave legal access for it to walk right in.

• Midianite merchants sold Joseph into Egypt
• Midianites were descendants of Midian (Abraham & [2nd wife] Keturah’s son)
• The Midianites had a religious and political system close to the Moabites and so they often allied with one another when they faced Israel.
• Zipporah one of Abraham’s wives was a Midianite
• The Midianites were desert-dwelling people
• Verse 3: The Amalekites lived south of Canaan, between Mount Seir and Egyptian boarder
• Verse 4: Gaza is on the seacoast in SW Israel this shows that these Midianite raiders covered most of Israel from E to W.
• Verse 6: “brought low” = humbled / humiliated / made small

Verse 7 – 10

The Israelites cry out to be delivered and God sends a prophet, not a deliverer. I think their cry was a cry of distress not repentance. He brings in a prophet (the only other prophet mentioned in the book is Deborah) to remind them and rebuke them in their rebellion against God. Rebuke is always meant to lead to repentance.

The Lord rebuked them previously in Chapter 2 and it says the Israelites wept. During this rebuke they did not weep. What do you think this means?

In verse 10, the Lord reminded them, through a prophet, I AM the Lord and it is not the gods of the Amorites you should fear. I think He was saying: it is me you should fear! I would definitely be like, ”I hear you loud and clear.” 😅

Verse 11

• Ophrah’s location = East of the Esdraelon Plain = Greek for Jezreel: Jezreel Valley = low-lying area separating mountains of Galilee from the mountains of Samaria.
• This verse also does not say as previously mentioned before ”God raised up a deliverer” ???? He was met by the Angel of the Lord and commissioned for the role
• Gideon = 5th judge
• During Gideon’s day the winepress was put at the foot of the hill because they brought the grapes down from the vineyard. They would carry the heavy grapes downhill. The threshing floor was always put up on the top of the hill, the highest hill that was available, in order to catch the wind which would blow the chaff away. In this verse Gideon was down at the bottom threshing. That would be the place to take the grapes, but that is no place to take your crop for threshing. He can’t go to the hilltop because of the Midianites. He does not want them to see that he is threshing wheat. There is no air getting to him down there and no wind. So he pitches the grain up into the air. And what happens? Does the chaff blow away? No. It comes down around his neck and gets into his clothes making him very uncomfortable.
• Gideon has most bible verses as judge

Verse 12

So, Gideon is hiding in fear to not be seen by the Midianites, and The Angel of the Lord shows up and calls him a mighty warrior or mighty man of valor. Where was his valor?? The Lord being past present and future was calling forth what He knew to be true about Gideon. The Lord created Gideon He knew exactly what mantle he carried and he spoke it into existence over him… IN PERSON!!!!

warrior = brave, strong, mighty
man of value: chayil = strength, army, virtuous, strong

Verse 13 – 14

Gideon asks the Lord, if you are with us then why is all this terrible stuff happening. But, if we read the verse again, we noticed that the Lord said “I am with thee” or ”I am with you.” The Israelites forgot the Lord. They weren’t with him. (They abandoned God, not the other way around.) The Lord tells Gideon I am with you, go forth and deliver them. Meaning go remove the enemy and bring the Lord back to Israel.
Verse 13: I think in this verse it kind of shows how the mind set of a deliverer works. They question. Notice God did not get mad at his questions. He answered them. Deliverers see the toxic, they just do. It is not like they are righteously seeking to see Hell in everyone. But there is always a question of Why. Why is this like this. What makes this so. Gideon’s mind was trying to piece together a puzzle. Most deliverers feel this way. How can we fix this puzzle. Where do all the pieces fit. Even tho it seems like Gideon is taking a stand against the Lord, he is really bothered!! Being bothered by sin is a true sign of a deliverer.
Verse 14: no longer says the Angel of the Lord just flat out say the LORD now.

Verse 15 – 16

Gideon’s train of thought is fleshly. How can I? The Lord had already called him as he truly was. Gideon just did not see it yet, he sees himself as inadequate. The Lord, comforting as He is, gives the blessed assurance of the Lord to Gideon “I AM will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites.” It is always good to know that he not only sends us, but is with us. His response to Gideon was a promise, and all God’s promises are yes and amen.

Verse 17 -21

We don’t always need a sign. Sometimes things that are said we just know to be true by faith. Asking for signs is not relatively a bad thing as some believe. Not everything we live today is word for word in the Bible. During our walk we will hear the Lord, and there is nothing wrong to ask the Lord to send you a sign in confirming or leading you in a certain direction of life. There are many many signs and wonders through out the Bible. The problem lies when/if we start to worship the signs over the voice of the Lord. When I first read this verse, I immediately was like Gideon, seriously, as sign??? But, i then stopped & I remembered the state Israel was in. Quite like today, over ran by the enemy; I feel he was ‘testing’ the spirit of which was talking to him. I don’t think the Lord was upset with him at all. I feel like the Lord understands us, He sees us, He knows us, He waited for Gideon to go and prepare a goat, to make unleavened bread. Just pause and think about that. He waited for Gideon. He actually said, “I will tarry until you come again.” Tarry means to properly sit down, to remain, to abide. He just sat down and waited. Probably smiling the whole time saying “this Gideon, he is unsure right now, but once he fully sees.” Don’t you see the Lord was OK with this whole conversation with Gideon. This should be a realization with some that it’s OK to be yourself with God.

• Sign: oth = a signal, a beacon
• present: minchah = a donation, tribute, bestow
• tarry: yashab = properly to sit down, to remain, abide, dwell, inhabit

Don’t forget in previous chapters the Midianites stealing all the food. Gideon prepares a large amount of the food he had. And it would have taken a while.

Verse 22 – 24

The miraculous fire and then Lord disappearing awoke Gideon to the presence he was just standing in. He called out in fear, because he thought now he was going to die because He had just seen the father face to face. The Lord tells him peace, you’re not going to die. When i type that out I laugh because, the Lord just told Gideon he was a warrior that was going to smite the enemy, but then in fear from what he just saw Gideon forgot all that, the Lord was like I am not going to kill you, relax, it’s OK Gideon, calm down. 😂😄 You know you’d react the same as Gideon.

•Jehovah Shalom = the Lord is peace

Verse 25 – 28

Gideon had been called as a deliverer of Israel.
Now, that same night, Gideon receives another order from the Lord.

Gideon’s father had an altar that was dedicated to the Canaanite god Baal. God tells Gideon to go and take his father’s one ox and another ox from somewhere else and pull down that idolatrous altar, and build an altar to the Lord.

Gideon agrees to do it. No questions ask. No sign needed. New the job the Lord said and did it.

• Removing the altar to Baal happened right away.
• By tearing down his fathers altar, God called Gideon to get his house in order first.
• He said to take the fathers bullock of 7 years is this because the hand of the Midianites were on Israel for 7 years.
• Before Gideon could be the deliverer of Israel, he had to be the destroyer of the false god Baal. It is the same for us.
• The Lord’s altar cannot stand alongside Baal’s. The two cannot coexist.
• William MacDonald (theologian) said: “Some people might fault Gideon for tearing down the altar at night because of fear. But we must not lose sight of the fact that he did obey the Lord. His fear did not stop him from being obedient. All of us have fear, and fear in and of itself is not necessarily wrong. But when it keeps us from obeying the Lord, it has become an obstacle to faith and is sin
• verse 28: cast down: nathats = to tear down, beat, break down, cast, pull, throw down (this is what we are to do to strongholds)

Verse 30

the men of the city were ready to kill Gideon, but I thought they, the Israelites, cried out to God for help, but are ready to defend their idols?? We see this a lot today, “Lord help us, but don’t take away our things we like.”

Verse 31

God moved on Joash, and he defended his son. Maybe by seeing his son’s obedience to God woke him up as well.

A god who can’t save himself is not worth worshiping

Verse 32

Jerubbaal = A man against whom Baal is to strive and contend; a title of honor

Verse 33 – 35

• Now bigger warfare is coming. The Midianites and Amalekites are coming for their annual free harvest haul.
• Valley of Jezreel = eastern part of the plain of Megiddo
• Verse 24: the spirit clothed Gideon, in the NT the spirit falls on all, in the OT the spirit fell on specific individuals who needed help to carry out commands of the Lord.
• Came upon: labash labesh = properly wrap around, to put a garment on, clothe. This seemed to make Gideon stand firm in courageous strength
• Trumpet: shophar = curved horn – Judges 7: 3 tells us that 32,000 men came to follow him into battle
• Verse 35: Asherites did not join Barak in battle against Jabin and Sisera.

Verse 36 – 40

• Adam Clarke described how the early church commentator Origen, found the “deeper” meaning of this account; his observations:
  • The fleece represents the Jewish people and the area around it represents the Gentiles.
  • The fleece was covered with dew while all around was dry, representing the Jewish nation favored with the law and the prophets.
  •  The fleece was then dry and all around was wet with dew, representing that the Jewish nation was cast off for rejecting the Gospel and the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles and they converted to God.
  • The dew wrung out into the bowl represents the doctrines of Christianity, which are extracted from the Jewish writings. This is also shadowed forth by Christ’s pouring water into a basin and washing the disciple’s feet.

Verse 37 – 40 just seems like a complete lack of faith on Gideon’s part. Do we do this today, “put out a fleece.” Maybe God says something to us, and we want to really make sure it’s God, OK, that is all and good. But is what Gideon doing now simply because he wants to ‘make sure’ like earlier, or is he stalling because of fear? The Holy Spirit did clothe himself upon Gideon, and he became bold and called brothers to war with him, but now it seems he’s had a little time to think and let doubt sink in. The issue I see here that I did not see before is knowledge. Earlier Gideon was verifying the ‘angel’ he was talking to. He was weighing it out. Here, he knows who it is, and he still needs the Lord to do not one but two fleece shows. Seems a little sus Gideon. 😬 BUT!!!! Can I say I wouldn’t do this, can you??? What he is being called to do is a lot. Would I fleece God, would you? Have I already before? 😬This was a big call. Has God given you a big call and you immediately said no? Small faith is greater than No faith!!

Also, you know what, the Lord does it for him. Because He’s awesome. He gave Gideon what he needed. No reply. No anger. No offense. He did it. Exactly what Gideon asked the Lord did it.

The tender heart of God is true to believers even in moments of weak faith.